The Legend That Was Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

assassinated in an incident that took place in Washington today, including two Hyadeans. We have reason to believe that the deaths of the Hyadeans were not planned. However, it's still an embarrassment to the administration. As a precaution, it has been decided to keep prominent Hyadeans under extended security protection for the time being. A guard has been placed at their mission building in Lakewood. Our instructions are to escort your Hyadean guests back when they are finished here. I apologize for any inconvenience."
    Cade snorted. "We were thinking of maybe moving things out on the water," he commented, mostly to test how serious this was.
    Rossi shook his head. "Under the circumstances, we don't think that would be advisable, Mr. Cade."
    Cade nodded. Whatever the form of the words, the tone left no doubt. He turned his head to address Henry. "I guess you'd better go and tell Warren he can stand the crew down."
    People who were smart didn't mess with these guys. There were too many ways they could make life miserable. And apart from the occasional intrusion like this, life wasn't that bad. So go with the flow, Cade told himself. What else could anyone do?

CHAPTER FOUR
    MORE THAN TWELVE YEARS had passed since the first reconnaissance squadron of five Hyadean ships was detected coming in fast from the outer Solar System. In a matter of days they had arrived. There were no claims of mysterious objects seen by questionable people, or allegations of strange happenings in unlikely places as had been depicted in generations of fictional imaginings. These aliens were here, and all the world knew it. A week later, they commenced descents to the surface.  
    The first landings were in parts of South America, western China and Tibet, and northeast Australia. The selected areas were similar in being sparsely settled, rugged, and having climate that varied with terrain ranging from dense forest to bare mountains. Since the aliens appeared to be shunning population centers, and their motives were obscure, official contacts were initiated by Terrans.  
    The effect on the nations and peoples of Earth was, understandably, stupefying. Some of the first organized representations to descend on the alien bases after the nervous military withdrew to a watchful distance and governments had presented diplomatic calling cards were by the scientists. Some of their most cherished beliefs were already in ruins, after all, and their questions came in torrents.  
    How was travel over such distances possible in the time the aliens said, given the limitations imposed by the laws of physics? Well, it turned out, the "laws" were wrong. Getting around inside the galaxy fast wasn't a huge problem. And while distances beyond that were certainly vaster, and the Hyadeans had not as yet contemplated travel between galaxies, the distances to them weren't as immense as Terran astronomers believed. The red shift had been misinterpreted.  
    Okay, even if the supposed restrictions were wrong, how do you get the power, when even nuclear fusion would be impractical for the superluminal velocities that the Hyadeans said they achieved? Raw fusion only tapped into one percent of the mass equivalent, the Hyadeans replied. Nuclear processes could be catalyzed to be far more efficient, in a way comparable to chemical processes. And there were other forces beyond those, anyway. The phenomena hinting of them were there all the time, but Terran scientists too concerned with protecting their theories had ignored or denied them when they wouldn't fit. For the same kind of reason, the theory that life originated on planets was wrong, that it evolved through natural selection was wrong, and the theory of planets and stars forming out of rotating gaseous nebulas was wrong. What about the theory of the Big Bang and the origin of it all? the Terran scientists asked. The Hyadeans didn't know. They hadn't really thought about it. Looking at the claims the Terrans presented, they